Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Date & Apple Shake

Date & Apple Shake served with potato crisps

Football fever is hightening every day here in Germany. All possible things are being sold in the shape of a football - bread rolls, cakes and pastries & tarts with icing made to look like a football. You name it, they have it. Pizzerias are advertising that they are open all throughout the tournament and are also offering special deals for larger groups. Almost every pub has hung a board outside saying that the patrons can enjoy the tournament inside on their large screen (and buy bottles after bottles of the local 'Alt' while watching the game). I am sure most of them are going to make so much business during that month, that they will afford to shut down the place for several weeks after the World Cup is over.

No wonder then that my 'goals' have changed temporarily. I am thinking football and thinking of eating football all the time. (Eating football?) What I mean is that I often find myself thinking of making something innovative for the 'Monthly Mingle' organised by Meeta. I prepared something a few weeks back, but could not sit quiet after that. So, what innovative thing did I make? Well, nothing. And that is because whatever I thought of making is being sold here in the shops anyway. For example, I thought of making a pastry with a football icing. But they are selling it now in shops, as I have already mentioned. (Copy-cats!) What I could have done is that I could have just photgraphed a readymade pastry and posted it as 'mine'. (They are never gonna know about this in the US and in India, are they?) But hey, what about integrity? Ah, those darn values!

The moral of the story is that I made only a milk shake to wash down my pizza. Well, it's just a milk shake, but then you can always have it, even well after the football season is over. Moreover, it's nutritious and tasty. Good enough to make your son the next David Beckham. (That's of course, if you are ready to accept somebody like Posh yuk! Spice as your daughter-in-law!)

Anyway, here's the recipe for Date & Apple Shake based on one by Tarla Dalal

2. Chop the apple. You could peel it, if you like. But please don't forget, that there is a lot of nutrition right under the peel!

3. Mix all ingredients in a blender and blend them till you get a fairly smooth and frothy shake.

4. Garnish them with any chopped nuts or pieces of a bright-coloured fruit e.g. strawberries. My garnish were the special football glasses. ;-)

A few Notes:1. In case using readymade vanilla sugar in sachets, just empty one of those into the blender without bothering to measure. The quantity in those sachets is normally 8 grams here in Europe. Hopefully it is the same in the US.

2. You can make vanilla sugar at home like this: Buy a vanilla bean as shown in the earlier picture, use the pulp in a cake or in any recipe that asks for it, and then insert the remaining outer cover in a jar filled with sugar. You’ll get wonderfully aromatic vanilla sugar in about a week.

3. You could use a banana instead of the apple, if you like.

4. This shake tastes equally good, when made without ice-cubes. On the other hand, if you want it really chilled, you could use vanilla ice-cream instead of the milk (barring that used for soaking dates), vanilla essence and ice-cubes. Visit here for another great recipe for a similar milk shake.

38 comments:

I loved the ingredients pic better than the football cups- amazing arrangement and lighting ! And I do remember seeing this recipe in Tarla Dalal's breakfast recipes or so, sounds good- and you guys enjoy as the football fever catches up! I guess you'll get beer when you open your taps, instead of WATER, haha...

Author, I visited your blog. I'll need some quiet time to go through it thoroughly.

Nandita, that was such a good one with the beer. Hahaha... You should have been born a Brit with that sense of humour. Hey, and do you really like the ingredients photograph? Thanks.

'Real'(?) Anon, I didn't know that one with the apple and the doctor. Good one! I don't know about the footballers, but I am certainly going to drink some Altbier while the match is on.

MT, you are right. The dates bring in loads of iron into this.

Ashwini, I am so glad that you like my ingredients photograph. By arranging the photo objects in different ways, I am only trying to make up for the lack of a good, high-resolution digicam. Thanks, ya.

Mythili, you got the point absolutely right. It is so much easier to have a glass or two of this shake instead of having a few dates, an apple and a cup of milk separately.

Lakshmi, I am sure you'll like this refreshing drink. Great on those Saturday mornings when you are busy cleaning the house, are hungry and need something filling.

Vineela, you try out this drink, and I am gonna have that Rasmalai of yours. It looks gorgeous.

hivaishalikashi ahees!!!i would love to be friends with you as we seem to share the love for food and for things related to food too so can you give me your email so that i can write to you.i will try the shake that you have mentionedhow is life in germany do you get all types of indian stuffthere are so many things i want to ask you so pls write to me.bye

First of all lovely picture set up.Second of all i like all the notes on this recipe..especially about the vanilla sugar...I have never tried vanilla sugar but will remember to buy those small sachets and experiment first before i convert bulk of sugar into vanilla sugar...

Santhi, that thing with being able to drink two shakes was so funny. Btw, can you send some of that hot weather over to Germany? We are having Monsoon-like rains and a maximum of 15°C at the moment. And that after having had 30°C for two whole weeks mid-May.

Vaishali: Looks very yummy! I already made Ashwini's date shake sometime back and loved that taste.. now this definitely goes to my "do-s".. quite long list now. Will let you know how it turned out! I assume, my kid woould love this taste. Thanks for sharing this!

Nice combination. Sort of combining Europian (Apple) taste to Middle-eastern (dates). Liked the photo of the ingredients too. (sorry for bit of digression but that 'dimple of light' on apple reminds me of my elementary-intermediate drawing exams.)

Shankari, no, I am from Pune. Please read my first ever post from the archives section, in case you want to know more about me.

Karthi, your kids will certainly love this. My 18-month-old daughter does. She is a bit of a 'fruit person' anyway.

Nandan, I hardly ever did drawing in school. I had many classmates, who appeared for these exams, but always stayed away from them. I am still quite bad at it actually. :) Btw, I got that kind of lighting only because there is a long window on that side of the apple. Didn't have to put in too much effort.

Hey vaishali, did u know frozen bananas r a better option for shakes than fresh ones !! to freeze just cut them into small pieces n ziplock them. They can be used any time. So if u get a lot of bananas and they have started over ripening , u can just cut them n freeze them to use in smoothies. I tried the banana anjir smoothi (dried figs not fresh ones) n it was yum ....dint get a chance to click a pic ! the figs should be presoaked for a cuople of hrs n it tastes great

Sumitha, healthy it sure is. As far as my daughter is concerned, hmmmmm....the less said the better. :)

Neelu, I freeze bananas quite often, but I thaw them again at a later date and use them in cakes, etc. But using them frozen for shakes is a cool idea. Literally. :) Thanks for the hint. Please do post your shake recipe with dried figs sometime.

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